Medication
by Sand-wolf579
Summary: Humanized! Kowalski is in charge of making sure Rico takes his medication, but he gets distracted. Because of this, there are serious consequences.
1. Chapter 1

**Alright, it's official now...Penguins have taken over my mind, and suddenly too. I got obsessed with the Penguins of Madagascar only, like, a month ago. It's gotten so bad that I've got got Penguins fanfiction on my mind, which would be fine, except I can't concentrate properly on any of my other fanfiction until I write these ones out, so here we go.**

**And no, funnily enough, I don't own Penguins of Madagascar.**

It was one of those rare, quiet nights at the 'Penguins' apartment. They didn't have any top secret missions to do. None of their friends needed their help with anything crazy. They weren't even doing any training because Skipper was spending the evening with Marlene. The others were glad to have the night off to do what they wanted to do. Private turned on the tv and quickly got absorbed in his show. Kowalski on the other hand was planning on spending the night working on his latest invention.

Kowalski headed for the door that led to his lab, but paused when he saw Rico. The mohawked man was just sitting on the floor, brushing the hair of a doll and humming roughly. Rico didn't even notice that Kowalski was standing by him until the scientist cleared his throat to announce his presence. Rico quickly hid the doll behind his back and chuckled nervously.

"Rico, give me the doll." Kowalski said sternly. Rico frowned and glared at Kowalski, but as his stern gaze didn't falter, Rico grudgingly handed him the doll. The maniac pouted angrily, and refused to look at Kowalski. Kowalski sighed and crouched down to Rico's level.

"Rico, we talked about this." Kowalski said. "I know that the doll calms you down, but you know the medication works just as well." Rico grunted, but nodded. Kowalski stood up and held out his hand to help Rico up. Kowalski led Rico to his lab, then went to get the medication.

Rico, while a very remarkable and talented man in the agency, wasn't quite right in the head. Kowalski honestly didn't blame him, he'd probably be a little insane too if he'd seen and done what Rico had when he was younger. For years, Rico had used a doll to calm himself down when he began to feel especially crazy. The doll could only do so much though, which was why they got Rico medication.

The medication was not without its issues though. For one, the maniac had a very hard time adjusting to taking medication rather than using his doll. There were also, of course, some dangers in taking medication, which was why Skipper had put Kowalski in charge of it. They trusted Rico with some things, but there was no way they were going to leave a man who would eat anything even the slightest bit edible in charge of his own medication. No, Rico didn't even know where they kept it.

Kowalski gasped when he returned to his lab to find Rico playing around with an unfinished invention, no doubt hoping for it to go 'Kaboom'. The intellect snatched the invention from the maniacs hands and placed it carefully on his desk. Kowalski glared at Rico, who just grinned back.

"Let's just get this over with, shall we?" Kowalski suggested. He heard the phone ring in the other room, but chose to ignore it. Private would answer it. Before Kowalski could give Rico his medication though Private called from the other room.

"K'walski, Doris is on the phone. She want's to talk to you." Private said.

"Doris?" Kowalski exclaimed happily. Doris was actually calling him? As quickly as possible Kowalski put down the bottle of medication, told Rico to stay put, and ran out of the room to talk to Doris.

Kowalski had been talking to Doris for a while when he heard some loud thuds from within his lab. Private had heard the sounds too, and was concerned.

"What was that?" Private asked.

"Rico must just be messing around with my stuff again. I'll clean up the mess later." Kowalski said sharply to Private. He then went back to his phone call. Private wasn't satisfied though.

"I feel like something's wrong." The kid said. "I'm going to go see." The boy went into Kowalski's lab, and was alarmed at what he saw.

"K'walski, something's wrong with Rico." Private shouted. Kowalski sighed and, phone still in hand, followed Private to the lab. He was sure the kid was just overreacting, but quickly changed his mind when he saw his lab. One of the tables had been flipped to its side, and everything on it had scattered everywhere. There was Rico, on the ground, leaning against the table, and he didn't look very good.

Rico was clutching at his stomach, as if it hurt. It sounded like he was having trouble breathing, and his eyes were very unfocused. He also seemed to be struggling to stay awake. Kowalski was immediately worried. He rushed to Rico's side to try to figure out what was wrong with him.

"Rico, are you okay? What happened?" Kowalski asked.

"Like dolly better." Rico mumbled weakly before falling unconscious. Kowalski paled and looked around the room, looking for...there, on the desk. Kowalski got up and quickly looked inside the medication bottle, and felt sick to his stomach when he saw it was empty.

"Doris, I'm going to have to call you back." Kowalski said into the phone that he was still holding. After hanging up, he shoved the phone into Private's hands.

"Private, call an ambulance." Kowalski ordered. Private didn't ask any questions, he may not have known what was wrong with Rico, but if Kowalski was this upset about it, it must have been bad. Private just hoped that Rico would be okay.

__meanwhile__

"So, Skipper, just what kind of secret missions do you guys do anyways?" Marlene asked Skipper as the two of them walked back to their apartment building. They were just returning from a night around town, and all night Marlene had been trying to get Skipper to tell her more about what they did...so far, she'd found out nothing.

"Marlene, that's classified information." Skipper replied not for the first time that night.

"Yeah, somehow I knew you were going to say that." Marlene muttered under her breath. "Come on Skipper, we're neighbors, friends, you can trust me. I'm not one of your enemies."

"That may be true, Marlene, but I still can't tell you anything." Skipper said, "If one of our enemies suspects you know something, they may capture you, torture you, or worse. No, it's better if you don't know anything."

"Um, okay. If you say so, Skipper." Marlene said as she leaned closer to Skipper. All his talk about enemies and torture always made her uneasy. Especially since he said it all so casually, as if those kind of things were just part of everyday life. If that was the case, maybe it was better that she knew nothing. Marlene was relieved when they turned a corner and their apartment building came into view. That relief quickly vanished when she saw the flashing lights.

"That doesn't look very good." Marlene muttered, "Do you think something happened?"

"Oh, I know something happened." Skipper responded. "They wouldn't have called an ambulance if nothing had happened." The ambulance began to drive away, and Marlene began to hope that it wasn't someone that she knew that was hurt. Sure, it would be terrible if anyone was hurt, but especially if she knew them.

"Skippah, Marlene!" A voice cried. A second later Skipper got tackle-embraced by a small sixteen year old.

"What the...Private, what are you doing out here?" Skipper asked. Private wasn't supposed to be outside by himself...even if they were just a few yards from their apartment building. None of the Penguins were allowed to go anywhere by themselves. Yet, here was Private, by himself, with no Kowalski or Rico in sight.

"Where are the others?" Skipper asked. Those two had better have a good excuse for letting Private out by himself. Private bit his lip and looked in the direction that the ambulance had driven off in.

"You mean they-?" Skipper trailed off and Private nodded.

"I don't know how it happened, sir." Private said quietly. "Rico just suddenly seemed very unwell. Kowalski was so worried. I've never seen him so scared before." The poor kid looked so upset, it was obvious that Kowalski wasn't the only one that was scared.

"Don't you worry, Private." Skipper said as he put his arm around Private's shoulder, pulling him closer. "I'm sure that Rico will be just fine."

"Do you really think so, Skippah?" Private sniffed.

"Well of course I do." Skipper said, "Now come on, let's get to the hospital. I, for one, would like to know what's wrong with Rico in the first place."

__At the hospital__

Kowalski sat with his head in his hands, elbows on his knees. He was in the waiting room of the hospital, doing just that, waiting. Waiting for the doctors to get that stupid medication out of Rico's stomach already. Kowalski groaned in frustration. This whole thing was his fault. Thirty seconds. It would have taken maybe another thirty seconds to get Rico his medication, and put the rest of it away. But no, he was so excited to talk to Doris, he wouldn't take an extra thirty seconds to do things right. Skipper always said that Kowalski's 'obsession' with Doris would get him into trouble some day.

But why did Rico have to suffer for it?

"K'walski, are you okay?" Private's voice brought the intellect out of his thoughts. Kowalski looked up to see Private, Skipper, and Marlene watching him.

"What I want to know is if Rico's okay." Marlene said.

"Me too. What's wrong with Rico anyways?" Skipper asked. Kowalski paled and hesitantly reached into his coat pocket for something. He brought it out and handed it to Skipper. When Skipper saw what he was holding, he looked worried for a second, before that worry changed quickly to anger. Skipper brought up his hand and slapped Kowalski across the face, hard.

"Overdose!?" Skipper asked as he held up Rico's medication bottle. "Would you mind explaining to me, Kowalski, how Rico could have possibly overdosed?"

"Could Rico have done it intentionally?" Marlene asked quietly. Private shook his head.

"That's not possible." Private answered, "K'walski's the only one who knew where Rico's medication was kept."

"Exactly, so how did this happen?" Skipper demanded.

"I-I'm sorry." Kowalski said uneasily, "I got distracted while I was getting Rico his medication, and I left it out."

"Distracted? What could have possibly distracted you from something so important?" Skipper asked angrily.

Kowalski mumbled a response, which wasn't understood by anybody.

"So I can hear you, Kowalski." Skipper said sternly.

"I got a phone call from Doris, okay?" Kowalski blurted out. This response earned him another slap from Skipper, who looked even angrier than before.

"So, you're telling me that Rico is in who-knows-what condition, because you just had to talk to your crush?" Skipper asked. Kowalski nodded shamefully. "Well, it's good to know that some girl is more important to you than your teammate."

Kowalski hung his head. Skipper was right, he had really messed up. If anything happened to Rico, it would be Kowalski's fault. He had left the pills in the room with Rico. He had wanted to ignore the sounds from the lab that alerted Private that something had happened. He had wanted to ignore Private when he had insisted that something was wrong. He had been so blind, all because of a single phone call.

Even if Rico was completely okay after this, the agency could easily come to the same conclusion that Marlene had. That this was an attempted suicide. They already thought Rico was unstable. If they also thought he was suicidal, there would be no way they would let Rico stay on the team. They could very well decide that Rico was too dangerous and unpredictable to live amongst normal people and lock him up, like they had wanted to do when they had first found him.

All because of Kowalski.

"_I'm so sorry, Rico."_ Kowalski muttered to himself.

**Well? How was it? Was it good? Should I write about what happens next? Should I stop asking these questions? Yes, yes I probably should, on both of those last questions. I mean, honestly, I can't just leave it like that. I have to write about how things get better, don't I?**


	2. Chapter 2

**I am so sorry, I swear, I would have updated earlier, and I really wanted to. But it's the holiday season, things are busy. Anyways, I'm back now, ready to write the next two chapters and finish this story.**

When Rico first woke up, he couldn't bring himself to opening his eyes. His body felt like it just didn't want to cooperate with him. He felt stiff and sore everywhere. His thoughts were very jumbled up and, worst of all, his stomach felt empty. Rico hated the feeling of an empty stomach. If his stomach felt empty, then he felt empty.

It was a few minutes before Rico finally forced his eyes open, and when he did he saw Kowalski looking at him, and he looked relieved to see Rico awake.

"Rico, I'm glad to see you're alright." Kowalski exclaimed happily, then he frowned and looked concerned, "You are alright, aren't you?"

"Um, yup." Rico responded. Sure, he felt sore and tired, but other than that, he was fine.

"No permanent damage?" Kowalski asked nervously. This confused Rico. Permanent damage from what? He wasn't even sure what had happened.

"Uh, nope?" Rico didn't know what kind of damage Kowalski was talking about. He didn't feel any different.

"We'll have to ask the doctor, to be sure." Skipper said, causing Rico to jump slightly. He hadn't noticed that Skipper was in the room as well. And did he just say doctor?

"Wha' doctor?" Rico asked.

"When we noticed that you seemed to be waking up, we sent Private to get the doctor." Skipper replied. That didn't answer Rico's question though, so he looked to Kowalski for the answer.

"Well, Rico, we're at the hospital." Kowalski said.

"Huh? Wha' 'appened?" Rico asked.

"You overdosed." A new voice said. The three of them looked to see that Private had returned with the doctor, who had been the one to speak. Rico didn't really know what overdose meant, so he looked to Kowalski again to answer him.

"Well, you know how your medication helps you?" Kowalski asked. Rico nodded, of course he knew that. Kowalski continued. "An overdose is when you take too much medication. Overdoses can permanently damage your mind or body, or even kill you." Kowalski sounded like he was trying to speak as he normally did, but Rico could hear the emotion in his voice.

"There doesn't seem to be any permanent damage, which is quite surprising." The doctor said. "Considering the type and quantity of medication you took, we were expecting to see some brain damage or something similar.

"I think Rico's brain is already as damaged as it can get." Skipper commented, causing the doctor to frown and the others to chuckle. So many people said that Rico was insane, including Skipper. He would call Rico a maniac or crazy all the time, though he never said or meant it as an insult. He said it as if he thought it were funny that others would think of Rico that way.

"In any case, you appear to be fine." The doctor told Rico. "You're free to go, though I suggest that you take things easy for a few days. And come back if your condition worsens."

Kowalski helped Rico up and they went into the hallway. Before they could leave the doctor took Skipper aside to have a quick word with him.

"You may want to consider having him talk to a therapist." The doctor whispered to Skipper, though they all heard him. "From what I can figure, Rico's mentality seems to be rather unique and, admittedly, disturbing. It may do some good for him to see a professional about his issues."

"I don't think that will be needed." Skipper said with a frown. "No offense, but the last thing we need is for some nosy namby-pamby know-it-all to pretend to know more about how Rico thinks than he does.

The four Penguins left the hospital together and headed back home. They went in silence, which they didn't do often when they weren't on missions. Rico felt uncomfortable the entire way back, because he noticed that both Skipper and Kowalski were now acting kind of strangely. Skipper seemed frustrated and somewhat nervous about something, and Kowalski just seemed ashamed and upset. Rico couldn't help but think that it was because of him.

The next few days were tough for Rico, he was so bored. He couldn't leave their apartment without running into someone else in the building who thought he was insane, which was normal, but for some reason, it was now worse. They all seemed so uncomfortable around him that they avoided him altogether, yet wouldn't stop shooting him strange suspicious looks.

Rico was used to people behaving like this around him, though to a lesser degree. Usually he was able to handle it fine with his roommates on his side. But Kowalski had also been avoiding him, that was the worst part of this whole thing. Rico didn't even know why Kowalski was avoiding him.

Rico didn't enjoy the judgemental looks sent his way, so he avoided leaving their apartment. He spent a good amount of his time with Private, but there was only so much of the kid's childish ways and obsession with Luncacorns that Rico could take. So Rico spent most of his time in his room, by himself.

One day, while Rico was struggling through watching an episode of Lunacorns with Private, (Yes, with Kowalski avoiding him, Rico was that desperate for interaction with his teammates,) Skipper got a phone call. Rico and Private continued watching the television until Skipper came over and turned it off. Private wasn't happy, but Skipper wasn't going to hear his protests.

"Rico, take Private over to Marlene's." Skipper ordered. Rico obeyed without hesitation, glad for an excuse to get away from that infuriating show. Besides, Rico was pretty sure that this phone call was important. Skipper had been anxious and nervous for days, especially when the phone rang. He had been expecting someone to call, and it seemed as if they had, and he wanted to speak in private.

Rico dropped Private off at Marlene's apartment, but refused her offer for him to come in as well. Marlene was great and all, but Rico didn't really feel like being around her and Private at the moment. He only one he wanted to be around was his best friends, who had decided to avoid him for who knows why. Maybe Skipper knew where Kowalski ran off to. Rico decided to go and ask, so he headed back to their apartment.

The first thing he heard when he got back was Skipper arguing very loudly with whoever he was talking to. Alright, so maybe now wasn't a good time to ask Skipper where Kowalski was. Rico would just find him by himself, it shouldn't be too hard. Rico made to leave, but froze when he heard what Skipper was saying.

"Sir, I mean no offense by this, but you have no idea what you are talking about!" Skipper shouted into the phone. He listened for a minute before interrupting who was talking. "Yes, I am perfectly aware of his behavior, but that does not mean-" Skipper got cut off by the other person, and seemed to get angrier about what they'd just said. "No! I'm telling you, he's not like that. You can't just assume things about Rico, he's-" Rico left at this point. He didn't want to hear anymore.

Rico needed to be alone and have some space. None of the Penguins were allowed to leave the apartment building by themselves, and Rico didn't want to face anybody else. There was no way he was going to stay in the apartment, so Rico went up to the roof where, hopefully, no one would bother him.

Rico had expected there to be no one else up on the roof, because he and his teammates were the only ones who went up there frequently. So Rico was surprised to see Kowalski already up there, though really, Rico shouldn't have been that surprised. After all, if the roof was the only place Rico could go for some peace, the same thing would apply for Kowalski. Though he had come up here to be alone, Rico changed his mind. Maybe having company would be good. Rico walked over to stand next to Kowalski, who seemed uncomfortable that Rico was there.

"Oh, well, hello Rico." Kowalski mumbled without looking at his companion. Rico didn't say anything for a minute, and Kowalski was beginning to feel awkward. "You know what? Maybe I should go." Rico grabbed Kowalski's arm to stop him, and for the first time in days Kowalski actually brought himself to look at him, and was shocked at how distressed Rico looked.

"Rico, what's wrong?" Kowalski asked, alarmed. Rico didn't answer for a minute, as if trying to decide which of his problems was bothering him most. Finally, Rico made up his mind.

"Ca' we talk?" Rico asked. He was clearly upset and needed comfort, which was not Kowalski's strong point at all.

"Uhm, Rico, I'm not very good at this kind of thing." Kowalski said, "Why not talk to Skipper?"

"'Kipper on phone." Rico answered. Kowalski felt a pit in his stomach. Skipper being on the phone wasn't odd on its own, but the fact that Rico was this upset meant that Skipper must've been talking to his superiors at the agency, about Rico.

"And you heard Skipper?" Kowalski asked.

"Yup, some." Rico answered with a nod. "Why they talkin' 'bou' me?"

"They must've heard about what happened to you." Kowalski said. "Do you remember when I said that too much medication may kill you?" Rico nodded, "Well, some people overdose themselves for just that reason." Rico's eyes widened.

"Do they thin' tha' I di' tha'?" Rico asked.

"Yes, and I suspect that many of our neighbors do as well." Kowalski said. Well, at least Rico understood why everyone was acting so weird around him, though it didn't make him feel any better. Did they honestly think that Rico was suicidal? Wait a second. Kowalski had been acting strangely around him too.

"Do 'oo think tha'?" Rico asked, fearing the answer.

"What? No!" Kowalski exclaimed. "Rico, I know as well as you do that this was an accident."

"Then why are 'oo avoi'in' me?" Rico asked in an accusing tone. Kowalski paled, he hadn't thought that Rico had noticed.

"It's not like that." Kowalski insisted, "It's just that, well, ugh." This was hard. Kowalski couldn't tell Rico, but he couldn't not tell him. Rico looked expectantly at Kowalski, waiting for an answer.

"Because this is all my fault." Kowalski cried out, "I should have been more responsible, but I wasn't, just because Doris called. You could have been seriously injured because of me."

"Bu' I wa''nt" Rico said.

"That's besides the point." Kowalski shouted. "And because of what happened, the agency thinks that the only way to handle you is to just lock you up for life, or worse." This time Rico looked pale, and Kowalski felt terrible. That may have been the truth, and Rico may have suspected it, but he really did not need his suspicion confirmed.

"I'm sorry, that was out of line of me." Kowalski apologized.

"No' 'oor faul'." Rico said quietly. Kowalski hadn't meant for Rico to get hurt, he just had a moment of poor judgement, which Rico had every other day. Rico was not mad at Kowalski for this. Rico decided to change the subject to something not so depressing, and he had the perfect new topic.

"Wha' di' Doris wan'?" Rico asked slyly and was pleased to see Kowalski's face go red.

"It wasn't anything of importance." Kowalski said. Rico raised his eyebrows and Kowalski told him. "Fine, if you must know, she said that she'll be coming through New York next Wednesday, and she thought that I might like to 'hang out'."

"Ooh, 'oo've go' a date." Rico chuckled and Kowalski's face went even redder.

"It's not a date." Kowalski insisted. Rico snorted. Maybe Doris didn't think of it as a date, but Kowalski certainly did. Rico continued to tease Kowalski about his 'date' for a few minutes before the door to the roof opened and Skipper joined them, and he didn't look happy. Kowalski and Rico's playful mood quickly diminished.

"So?" Kowalski asked nervously, "What's the verdict?"

"It could have gone worse." Skipper said. "Luckily some of the people on the committee agree that Rico is a good agent, so they will allow us a chance to convince them that Rico is safe." Kowalski sighed. Skipper was right, it could be much worse.

"When will you be meeting with them?" Kowalski asked.

"Next Wednesday."

**Okay, I'm not sure how that is, all I know is that it took hours to write, it's insane. I apologize if you were wanting a longer story, because there will be just one more chapter. Oh, and if anybody has any advice on how to write Rico's speech pattern, I would really, really, really appreciate it. Seriously, it is so hard, it's ridiculous. So please, review, send advice, feedback, whatever.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry that this chapter took a bit, but at least l'm finishing it. Not much else to say but that and I don't own Penguins of Madagascar.**

The next week passed quickly for Kowalski, almost too quickly for his liking. It felt like a blink of an eye before it was Wednesday. For the past few days Kowalski had been having a silent debate with himself concerning what he should do. On one hand, he was really looking forward to finally having a date...uh, non-date, it wasn't a date, with Doris. But, Rico was in trouble, and Kowalski felt he needed to be there for his friend.

Kowalski didn't understand why he was feeling conflicted. After all, Skipper had already ordered him that he was not to go with them to talk to the agency's committee. Skipper felt that Kowalski had done enough, and that he wouldn't be needed. So, that Wednesday, while the others went to the agency, Kowalski left to meet with Doris, as he'd been told to. He was always happy for a chance to spend time with Doris, and he was sure that the others could handle convincing the agency…

So why did Kowalski still feel like he was in the wrong place?

"Kowalski, are you okay?" A sweet voice asked, pulling Kowalski from his thoughts. The man blinked and looked at his companion, Doris. The blond woman looked concerned.

"Yes, I'm quite alright," Kowalski said. "I was just distracted is all."

"That seems quite unlike you." Doris raised an eyebrow. She was right. It wasn't uncommon for Kowalski to get distracted because of Doris, but never before had his thoughts been distracted from Doris. Especially not when he was in her company.

"I was just thinking." Kowalski said, "I assure you, I'm fine."

"You're thinking about Rico, aren't you?" Doris asked, looking sympathetic. Kowalski had told her about the situation...not everything, of course, because Skipper would never allow that. But Doris did know that Rico was in trouble because of his overdosage, and she knew that Kowalski felt terrible about it.

"I just feel like I should be there, getting Rico out of the trouble that I put him in." Kowalski admitted.

"So why aren't you?" Doris asked. "If it's because of me, well, I'm in town today because I'm on my way somewhere for work. When I'm done with the work, I'll probably be passing back through New York. We can catch up then, if you want."

"You would do that?" Kowalski asked. Doris smiled and nodded. "In that case, I should go." Kowalski said.

"Yeah, you probably should." Doris said. She kissed Kowalski on the cheek, making him blush furiously. "I'll see you later, Kowalski." Doris smirked and began to walk away as Kowalski hurried off in another direction toward the agency's headquarters.

He had been near enough headquarters when he'd started that Kowalski hadn't bothered to take any transportation and just walked, or rather, ran there. He was able to get in fairly quickly and didn't run into any trouble, which was lucky, because it usually took a while for agents to be cleared to go in. It was probably the fact that the rest of his team was already there, so it wasn't so strange for him to be there too.

Kowalski made his way to the meeting room, which was where they would surely be. He was slightly surprised to see that Private and Rico weren't in the room, but outside it, waiting, and listening through the slightly opened door. Well, Private was listening. Rico was just sitting on the floor, listening to his rock-and-roll music so loudly that Kowalski could hear it through the headphones.

"How're things going in there?" Kowalski asked, surprising Private, who hadn't noticed him coming.

"Oh, hello K'walski." Private said in his usual cheerful voice. "What are you doing here? I thought you were out on a, er, not-date with Doris."

"We rescheduled." Kowalski said. "How are things going in there?"

"Um, not too bad, I suppose." Private shrugged, "But you know how Skipper is." Indeed Kowalski did know. Skipper didn't work well with authority, and disagreed with their way of doings things often. It was common for him to but-heads with their superiors on many different matters. That itself wasn't the problem, the problem was that Skipper wasn't necessarily good at discussing things with his bosses tactfully. He knew exactly what point he wanted to get across, but Kowalski was usually the one to do the actual speaking, because he knew how to speak in such a way that they would actually listen to and understand him. That wasn't really something that Skipper could do very well.

A perfect example of Skipper's lack of tact was the discussion they were having in the meeting room at the moment. With the door open, Kowalski could hear every word, and so could Private. Kowalski suspected that the reason that Rico was listening to his music so loud in the first place was so he wouldn't have to listen to what was being said, which wasn't what one would call encouraging.

"Look, Skipper, we see what you're saying, really we do." Kowalski recognized the voice as the head of the agency. "We just don't know if you've fully thought this through. Rico's behavior and work, while useful at times, is too eccentric, unpredictable, and, frankly, dangerous. We don't want to do this to punish him, but to keep him, and others, safe."

"By locking him up?" Skipper asked. No one answered, but they didn't need to. "Look, if Rico's locked up unfairly, he'll likely become angry and destructive, just like last time. And that didn't go well for anybody." No, it hadn't. Kowalski shuddered at the memory.

Rico had been a member of a very powerful gang. Because of a tip from an inside source, all the members of the gang had been caught and brought in. All of them had been angry when they had heard that they were sold out, though none more so than Rico. Nobody understood how Rico could have escaped, avoided the agents that were everywhere, nearly beat a guy who was twice his size to death, and be completely unscathed at the end of it, but that's what he did. He also hadn't hurt any of the agents, just the rat.

The head of the agency and Skipper had recognized Rico's potential then. They also knew that he had been forced to join the gang, which was why he was so angry to have been caught. Rico had proven himself to be a dangerous enemy, but they suspected he could be a powerful ally. After two years of closely observed training, he was put on Skipper's team and had proven just how powerful an ally he was.

"Skipper, are you saying that Rico is too dangerous, that more, uh, extreme measures must be taken?" Some guy on the committee said.

"What? No! That's not what I'm saying at all." Skipper shouted. Kowalski sighed and entered the meeting room. It sounded like he was needed.

"May I say something?" Kowalski said, announcing his presence. Everyone in the room looked at him curiously. But the head nodded, allowing him to speak.

"I think that what Skipper is trying to say is that Rico has shown that while he would be a dangerous enemy, he's an even more useful ally." Kowalski began. "I'll admit that he can be unstable and dangerous at times. But let's be serious here, everyone in this room has been called unstable and insane before, multiple times, in fact." Some of the men scowled or smirked in agreement.

"So should Rico really be imprisoned because you see him as unstable because of an incident? Especially when Skipper, Private, and I have all assured you that his overdosage was just an accident. One that I take full responsibility for." Kowalski said. "I'm asking you to just give Rico another chance."

"He's already been given a second chance." Someone pointed out.

"Exactly, and back then his behavior was much worse than it is now." Kowalski retorted, "If he was given a chance back then, then why not now?"

"You make a good point, Kowalski." The head of the agency said, looking him in the eyes. "Many agents may not trust him, but the important thing is, do you?"

"With my life." Kowalski said seriously.

"Then I see no reason why Rico should not be allowed to continue working on your team." He said. "You are all allowed to go."

"Wait, seriously?" That had been way too easy. Kowalski had been expecting it to be harder than that. Not that he was complaining, it just hadn't been what he had expected.

"Of course." The head said. Some people didn't look happy with the decision, but no one said anything.

"Great, let's get out of here." Skipper said to Kowalski. "And for the record, I've never been so glad that you disobeyed an order before, but let's not make a habit of it."

"Of course, sir." Kowalski said. The two went into the hallway to find Private, who looked relieved, and Rico, who was still listening to his music obliviously. Kowalski chuckled and lifted the headphones away from Rico's ears.

"'ey!" Rico scowled, but grinned when he saw who it was. "Oh, 'ey 'Walski."

"Come on, Rico." Kowalski said. "Let's go home."

"Wai', really?" Rico was confused. He'd thought for sure that he wouldn't be going home that day.

"Yes, really." Skipper said. "Kowalski here took care of everything."

"Why aren' 'oo wi'h Doris?" Rico asked.

"Because you needed me more than she did." Kowalski said. "You were in trouble, and I had your back. Because that's what a team, and what friends, do."

Rico grinned and playfully punched Kowalski in the shoulder, causing him to stagger a little. Rico's punches were much more powerful than he thought they were, and more painful. Kowalski rubbed his shoulder and glared and Rico, who grinned sheepishly.

"Uh, oops?" Rico said, trying, and failing, to show his amusement. Kowalski rolled his eyes and punched Rico's shoulder. He grew irritated when Rico seemed to not even have noticed.

"Come on, you knuckleheads, let's go." Skipper said. The four of them left headquarters and made their way home for a relaxing, and hopefully uneventful, evening off.

**And there you go, not the best ending, but I think the chapter overall is pretty good. I was a little worried about whether Doris was in character or not, because to be honest, I haven't actually seen the episode that she's in so I don't know what her character's like. From what I do know she seems to be fairly nice, so that's how I wrote it. I hope it's not too bad, and I hope you enjoyed the story.**


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